Frampton wary of 'silent assassin'

Frampton, nicknamed the Jackal, faces Jeremy Parodi in a world title eliminator at the Odyssey Arena this weekend.

As the two came face to face at a press conference in Belfast on Thursday, the Tiger's Bay fighter quickly became aware of how reserved the Frenchman is.

Frampton's last opponent was a different kettle of fish - when Kiko Martinez came here in February he could hardly wait to get into the ring.

But Parodi wasn't giving much away.

When asked what sort of training he's been doing ahead of the fight he refused to be drawn, simply saying: "It's a secret".

Frampton responded: "I don't know if that's a good thing, maybe the silent assassin! But I think the only reason Kiko got on like that is because I got under his skin, but with Parodi you can say maybe he's under-confident, maybe just relaxed. I don't read too much into it."

There's a great buzz and it's justified - people here love boxing, it's a nice feeling

Carl Frampton

Currently the European Super Bantamweight champion, Frampton has been out of the ring since February through injury and for him the Parodi fight can't come soon enough.

"Every fight is a wee bit more important than the last one because I'm getting closer to a world title and if I lose this fight, it sets my career back two years," he added.

"But I'm not going to let that happen - I've trained too hard, I've sacrificed so much, I've been away from my family for so long. This is an eliminator for a world title and I won't become a world champion unless I can beat Jeremy."

Frampton and Parodi are expected in the ring around 10.30pm on Saturday night but before that there'll be several other explosive encounters.

The main event on the undercard sees Irish middleweight champion Eamon O'Kane take on Kerry Hope for the vacant IBF Inter-Continental title.

With the Odyssey Arena almost sold out, and excitement for the fight building across the city, Frampton believes Parodi isn't ready for what's about to hit him.

He continued: "Parodi has got a really good record, he never looks like he's even been hurt. Like myself he's got a solid-looking head, so he can probably take a good shot - but Kiko Martinez was never hurt before, and I knocked him out."